• Nicaraguan Canal going to be built by Chinese company- three times as large as Panama Canal
    51 replies, posted
[quote]The Nicaraguan government and the company behind plans to build a canal linking the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean have settled on a route. It would stretch 278km (173 miles) from Punta Gorda on the Caribbean through Lake Nicaragua to the mouth of the river Brito on the Pacific. Environmentalists have expressed concerns about the plans to build a canal to rival that of Panama. Nicaragua says it will break ground on the $40bn (£23bn) project this year. Engineers for the Hong Kong-based HKND Group said the canal would be between 230m and 520m wide and 27.6m deep. Nicaragua said it had chosen the route so it would avoid areas of great biodiversity, indigenous territories and environmentally protected lands. ... Nicaraguan officials say their waterway would "complement" the Panama Canal rather than be in direct rivalry to it. They say a bigger canal is essential to allow for increased global trade and ever larger tankers, many of which are too large for the Panama Canal, even after its current expansion. They are confident the project will help lift the country out of poverty. ... Mr Oquist told the BBC that the projects surrounding the canal, such as the creation of two free-trade zones, two ports linked by a railway and an international airport would create "a formative change in job creation". The government estimates it will lift more than 400,000 people out of general poverty by 2018 with the help of revenues created by the project.[/quote] [url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28206683]BBC[/url] [img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/76116000/jpg/_76116404_00cc7922-d4f7-4e4c-9110-bff6a91f147b.jpg[/img] [img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/76119000/jpg/_76119331_20140708_nicaragua_canal_624.jpg[/img]
That is going to be a massive fucking canal.
Panama isn't going to be very happy
QUICKLY, WE NEED TO MAKE A COSTA RICAN CANAL TEN TIMES AS LARGE AS THIS ONE. SINK COSTA RICA.
[quote] Nicaraguan officials say their waterway would "complement" the Panama Canal rather than be in direct rivalry to it.[/quote] lol sure
I have a feeling an undisclosed number of people are going to die building this.
[QUOTE=OvB;45327944]I have a feeling an undisclosed number of people are going to die building this.[/QUOTE] Shh. It's a chinese construction firm. Everything is fine. No accidents or espionage going on here. Move along, please.
[QUOTE=OvB;45327944]I have a feeling an undisclosed number of people are going to die building this.[/QUOTE] Three times as many as the Panama Canal, most likely
Now with 3x as many deaths [editline]8th July 2014[/editline] god damn ninjas
Engineers for the Hong Kong-based HKND Group said the canal would be between 230m and 520m wide and 27.6m deep. Holy shit that's huge.
This probably isn't good for the Eco system at all
The fools! They're going to sever their last connection to land. Southern Nicaragua, Costa Rica and most of Panama will float away if they build this canal. Look at the map!
[QUOTE=outlawpickle;45328140]The fools! They're going to sever their last connection to land. Southern Nicaragua, Costa Rica and most of Panama will float away if they build this canal. Look at the map![/QUOTE] Maybe that's the plan. They're trying to make a bigger canal after all.
I'm trying to figure out why.
It looks like Lake Nicaragua is going to be ruined.
Oh sweet, its going through a rainforest with a higher biodiversity than the entirety of Europe [t]http://puu.sh/a2iT9/56f35bbbef.jpg[/t]
Central America is going to break free from the mainland and float out to sea. To go hang with Hawaii. Alaska can come too.
[QUOTE=download;45328183]I'm trying to figure out why.[/QUOTE] Shipping, instead of having to go around South America you can just cut straight through
[QUOTE=download;45328183]I'm trying to figure out why.[/QUOTE] Why they're building it? Easy. A lot of new ships can't even fit in the Panama expansion. It was obsolete before it was finished. Building a bigger one will allow ships like the Maersk Triple-E global access rather than being limited to either side. If you could match the current ship volume of the Panama Canal with super container ships and super tankers your annual volume of cargo will be ridiculously high. And ships are only getting bigger.
Welp, there goes Lake Nicaragua and here comes a massive ecological disaster on the behalf of our friends the People's Republic of China.
[QUOTE=kaze4159;45328213]Shipping, instead of having to go around South America you can just cut straight through[/QUOTE] But Panama is there already, and they have nearly finished another lane that allows ships nearly 3 times the size through (and will help cut down on all the congestion) I suppose the only good reason I can think of is that Panama has gotten REALLY fucking expensive, a bit of competition would be good for the price.
Didn't the US consider doing this before the Panama canal project was put up for sale? It was absurd compared to Panama then, and it's absurd compared to Panama now. Also we're only about a month away from the 100 year anniversary of the Panama canal opening.
let's one-up 'em with a sierra leone to bering strait canal
[QUOTE=Flon22;45328256]But Panama is there already, and they have nearly finished another lane that allows ships nearly 3 times the size through (and will help cut down on all the congestion) I suppose the only good reason I can think of is that Panama has gotten REALLY fucking expensive, a bit of competition would be good for the price.[/QUOTE] What China wants is to control the shipping lane. By building a massive canal, they're opening an alternate route for ships that already can't fit through the Panama Canal despite the new expansions. It's already obsolete. A large number of Chinese exports go to Houston, I'd image they want to secure the future of that as well. The problem is, this thing is going to take [I]decades[/I] to build. I wonder if the Chinese economy will hold up until it's finished.
[QUOTE=OvB;45328360]What China wants is to control the shipping lane. By building a massive canal, they're opening an alternate route for ships that already can't fit through the Panama Canal despite the new expansions. It's already obsolete. A large number of Chinese exports go to Houston, I'd image they want to secure the future of that as well. The problem is, this thing is going to take [I]decades[/I] to build. I wonder if the Chinese economy will hold up until it's finished.[/QUOTE] I don't think China's economy is going anywhere, with the world's dependency on it to make their plastics.
[QUOTE=Flon22;45328190]Oh sweet, its going through a rainforest with a higher biodiversity than the entirety of Europe [t]http://puu.sh/a2iT9/56f35bbbef.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] Yeah, it's not going to be good for Nicaragua environmentally at all.
[QUOTE=OvB;45328061]Engineers for the Hong Kong-based HKND Group said the canal would be between 230m and 520m wide and 27.6m deep. Holy shit that's huge.[/QUOTE] I had to put this into scale for myself, at its smallest its you can put 3 Oasis of the Seas next to each other (side by side) with space to spare. [t]http://2s2u.com/p2go.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Royal-Caribbeans-Oasis-of-the-Seas-at-the-new-pier-St.Thomas.jpg[/t] And at its widest its wider than Taipei 101 is tall. [t]http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/images/albums/userpics/10005/Tapei101_Ext-Context_(c)TaipeiFinancial.jpg[/t]
[QUOTE=Call Me Kiwi;45328447]I had to put this into scale for myself, at its smallest its you can put 3 Oasis of the Seas next to each other (side by side) with space to spare. [t]http://2s2u.com/p2go.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Royal-Caribbeans-Oasis-of-the-Seas-at-the-new-pier-St.Thomas.jpg[/t] And at its widest its wider than Taipei 101 is tall. [t]http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/images/albums/userpics/10005/Tapei101_Ext-Context_(c)TaipeiFinancial.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] You could fit, at its smallest: A Valemax bulk carrier: [IMG_THUMB]http://i.imgur.com/9NXSkYL.jpg[/IMG_THUMB] A TI supertanker: [IMG_THUMB]http://i.imgur.com/ZHtBXci.jpg[/IMG_THUMB] and a Maersk Triple-E [IMG_THUMB]http://i.imgur.com/TxrMDSF.jpg[/IMG_THUMB] Side by side, with 38 meters to spare. [editline]8th July 2014[/editline] The important thing is how wide the locks are, though.
Why do I have a feeling they'll make it 3x longer but 1/3rd as deep? That kinda seems like the kind of corner a Chinese construction company would do
Their 5 year, $40 billion dollar projections seem optimistic to say the very least. For reference it took 10 years, and $10-$15 billion (2013 dollars) to build the Panama Canal and that is only 77km long compared to the 278km long Nicaragua Canal (not including width and depth). Yes, it was a century ago, but removing volumes of earth that large is still done the same way it was back then, just with better tools.
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